Agency History

Michigan Children’s Aid Society Oakland Branch (original name of the agency) is founded to serve children without homes but later includes services to children in their homes.

Royal Oak Family Services was founded primarily to provide financial resources to families as a supplement to public resources. This was later called the Family Services Society of Southern Oakland County.

Family Service Center for Pontiac, Bloomfield and Birmingham was formed as an outgrowth of services at Christ Church Cranbrook. It is formed to provide more substantive services for families already being served by volunteers through family visiting, giving clothing and supplementary aid.

Family Services Society of Southern Oakland County and Family Service Center of Pontiac, Bloomfield and Birmingham merge to become Family Services of Oakland County. 

This combined agency in turn merges with the Children's Aid Society-Oakland Branch to form the present Oakland Family Services. 

The agency is first licensed by the Oakland County Department of Social Services to provide adoption services for children.

The agency’s name is changed to Oakland Family Services. The current Pontiac location, a former Elk’s Temple, is purchased and renovated with the help of a capital campaign, which lasted until 1989. Further expansion of the building's basement, a former bowling alley, occurred during this time as well.

The newly renovated building is occupied by staff who had been using multiple offices throughout the area.

The Children’s Learning Center is funded at the Pontiac location.

Rochester Counseling Associates, a division of Oakland Family Services, is opened to provide mental health and substance abuse treatment for Rochester Hills and surrounding communities. 

The Fussy Baby program begins at Oakland Family Services.

Oakland Family Services acquires the Farmington Area Advisory Council, a 25-year-old organization that specialized in substance abuse treatment and prevention services.

The Project Recovery Intensive Services for Mothers (PRISM) Program is launched.

Oakland Family Services proudly dedicates its Pewabic tile donor wall, recognizing top donors from 1995-2004.

The agency dedicates its 44,000-square-foot facility in Pontiac and the “Harris Center for Children and Families” in honor of Mort and Brigitte Harris for their unwavering support of Oakland Family Services.

Oakland Family Services, Macomb Family Services and Family Service, Inc. of Detroit and Wayne County enter into a Memo of Understanding creating the Family Service Alliance for Southeastern Michigan (Alliance). The Alliance is created to form a regional response to the behavioral health challenges in the tri-county area. 

The Board of Directors adopts a new mission statement: “Providing individuals and families the opportunity to build brighter futures.”

Oakland Family Services, Macomb Family Services and Family Service, Inc. of Detroit and Wayne County entered into a Memo of Understanding creating the Family Service Alliance for Southeastern Michigan. The Alliance was created to form a regional response to the behavioral health challenges in the tri-county area. The agreement provides for the consolidation of duplicative business practices, standardized program service delivery processes and regional need of vulnerable families. In 2008, Family Service, Inc. of Detroit and Wayne County was replaced by Starfish Family Services. Oakland Family Services serves as the Alliance’s fiduciary, and its CEO is the Managing Partner.   

Oakland Family Services entered into a contract with the local PIHP to provide services to children with severe emotional disturbances, adding OFS as a core provider agency. The contract added significant revenue to the agency budget. 

Oakland Family Services Board of Directors approved new mission and vision statements as well as an updated Strategic Plan.   The mission statement, “Providing individuals and families opportunities to build brighter futures”, reflected the Agency’s focus on creating conditions for positive changes as defined by the people served. 

Oakland Family Services entered into a partnership with Oakland Integrated Health Network to provide an integrated health care clinic at its Pontiac site, allowing the community and clients of Oakland Family Services to access integrated physical and behavioral health services at one location.   

The Oakland Family Services Board of Directors defined Early Childhood Services as a priority area of service for the Agency. A task force comprised of Board and staff worked for a year and a half conducting research, interviewing clients, completing community observation and meeting with other experts. The result was the Oakland Family Services Early Childhood Initiative, Before 3 to Succeed, which operated until 2022 and focused on children birth to three years of age. The campaign sought to inform the public about the importance of these early years, assess children’s level of development, and offer programing for children with developmental delays and their families. Today, Oakland Family Services continues to strive toward these goals through its Parents as Teachers and Early On programs. 

Jaimie Clayton became president and CEO of the Agency. Clayton had begun as a therapist at Oakland Family Services in 2001 and had gone on to be director of Behavioral Health, interim vice president of Early Childhood and Behavioral Health, then vice president of Program Operations from 2007-2014.  

In the same year, the Agency opened a second Children’s Learning Center to provide preschool programming in Walled Lake. 

Also in 2014, Oakland Family Services entered Partners4Health, a joint venture agreement with 501(c)3 status that innovates and implements services relative to health care reform. The Agency was part of this collaborative for five successful and profitable years and withdrew in 2019 based on changing market conditions.

Oakland Family Services opens its second Children’s Learning Center in Walled Lake.

A Branding Study Task Force comprised of board members, a volunteer, and staff continued an examination of whether the name Oakland Family Services was impacting the Agency’s business and opportunities for growth.  Specifically, there was concern that some members of the community assume the Agency is part of the county and that the name impacts competitiveness for seeking contracts outside of Oakland County.  The work of the task force led to a board decision to rename and rebrand/co-brand behavioral health services, where most of the above concern was rooted and where there was an opportunity for growth with a strategic branding campaign.  The board selected the name Day One and approved the messaging “Today…Tomorrow…Day One. We’re here every day, every step of the way.”  The work of the Branding Study Task Force concluded in early 2016, and the work of developing and implementing the branding/marketing plan was assumed by staff. 

Work in 2016 and early 2017 culminated in a highly successful site visit and re-accreditation process with the Council on Accreditation, as well as a new strategic plan that focused on growth, expansion of key funder relationships and longer-term technology implementation through 2021.

In the process of approving a logo for Day One, the board also elected to update the Oakland Family Services logo. The previous logo was thought to be dated, and since the Oakland Family Services and Day One logos would be presented together at times, it was important that they related to each other.  A new Oakland Family Services logo was selected by the board in early 2017.  

In the early 2000s, Oakland Family Services’ main building in Pontiac had been named the Harris Center for Children and Families in honor of longtime board member Brigitte Harris and her husband Mort Harris, both beloved philanthropists and donors to the Agency. Following Brigitte’s death in 2016, Mort requested that the name be changed to the Brigitte P. Harris Center for Children and Families to honor her alone. In 2017, the site’s Brigitte P. Harris Memorial Garden and Playground was also dedicated in her honor. 

President and CEO Jaimie Clayton was named one of Crain’s Detroit Business’s Notable Women in Nonprofits. 

Oakland Family Services’ Parents as Teachers (PAT) program was named a Blue Ribbon affiliate in the National Network of PAT, a status that signifies meeting the highest national standards and stellar outcomes for children and families.

After a lengthy analysis, Oakland Family Services closed its Rochester Hills location to build long-term sustainability for the Agency and consolidate resources to its other offices. 

Oakland Family Services has been recognized as a Detroit Free Press Michigan Top Workplace each year since 2014 and was again named a National Top Workplace in 2020 Top Workplace rankings are determined based on employee surveys on workplace culture, pay, benefits, leadership, and what employees like or dislike about their jobs. 

The Agency collaborated with four other area nonprofits to develop PEAK Health Collective, a clinically integrated behavioral health network and LLC focused on improving access to services, improving quality of care and decreasing costs for commercial insurance companies. 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Oakland Family Services received a $1.2 million, 3-year grant from Ballmer Group to focus on capacity building.  

Upon the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Oakland Family Services quickly pivoted to maintain continuity of services for all clients through stay-at-home orders, temporary building closures and the challenges of working remotely. By offering virtual therapy appointments, serving families through Zoom and maintaining a safe environment for children enrolled in preschool and child care, the Agency ensured continued access to vital mental health, early childhood and child welfare programs through the entire pandemic. 

The Agency merged its two Walled Lake locations into one at the site of its Children’s Learning Center in 2021. This relocation allows for more integrated early childhood education and behavioral health services. As of the completion of this merger, the Agency now has three locations in Pontiac, Walled Lake and Berkley, with Children’s Learning Centers located at the Pontiac and Walled Lake sites. 

 Throughout the year, staff continued to work a hybrid model as the phases of the pandemic continued to shift. Virtual services were provided in programs as appropriate and approved by various funders. 

In 2021-22, Oakland Family Services celebrated its centennial, a rare milestone for a nonprofit. Special celebrations included the Agency’s first annual 5K Fun Run and 100th anniversary gala.  

Also in 2021, the Agency was successfully reaccredited through the Council on Accreditation and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which have accredited Oakland Family Services for more than 20 years. 

Additionally, 2021 marked the beginning of a new strategic framework focused on providing the right programs in the right place at the right time and having an integrated, sustainable approach to infrastructure.  

2022 brought a more official return to the office, with all departments working on site a minimum of two days a week.   The Agency officially embraced hybrid work models as standard practice for those departments that support work from home and virtual models. 

Oakland Family Services restructured the Executive Leadership Team after the retirement of a long-time team member.  Based upon the needs of the Agency, a new role, the Vice President of Administrative Services, was developed and filled.  This role aligns with the focus of the strategic framework to integrate most administrative services under one leader to best support programs and the mission. 

Also in fiscal year 2022, our program staff continued to provide essential services in the community.  The clinical staff of the Agency participated in the crisis response to the Oxford High School shooting, providing essential trauma services in the immediate days following the incident and for months afterward.   Our teachers in the Children’s Learning Centers were trained and implemented a special literacy program through our summer camp program aimed at helping children avoid learning loss and enhance literacy skills as they moved from preschool to kindergarten. 

 2022 ended with the first in person Adopt a Family holiday gift program since the start of the pandemic.  The program provided gifts for more than 700 children in over 400 families. 

Oakland Family Services was recognized as a Detroit Free Press Michigan Top Workplace in 2023, for the 10th consecutive year, a remarkable testament to the Agency’s focus on culture and the workplace experience for staff.    

The Executive Leadership team underwent another shift in design, adding a Vice President of Development. This role was added to drive a focus on fundraising across the Agency and Board of Directors, as well as develop more robust major giving and planned giving programs. 

The Agency celebrated a return to in-person fundraising events, with the Annual Building Brighter Futures breakfast in May, and cultivation events throughout the year. 

United Way made the decision to no longer fund the Early Learning Communities, a highly successful program that provides early childhood education and training to hundreds of thousands of individuals over the years. Oakland Family Services rounded out the treatment continuum by securing a contract with Oakland Community Health Network to serve 0-6 year olds.  In combination with the existing contract for programming for 7-21 year olds with severe emotional disturbances, this will ensure children of all ages can be served through the Specialized Services for Youth program. 

Oakland Family Services was chosen to implement and launch a program called Children’s Therapeutic Foster Care.  Despite the name, this is a treatment program as an adjunct to Specialized Services for Youth.  The program recruits, trains and employs families as respite homes for children with behavioral health issues that require more support and treatment than can be provided in their traditional home.  The program includes family therapy and individual therapy with the goal of the child returning to their home of origin. 

The foster care program began plans for expansion, slowly adding case managers to serve more children involved in the child welfare system. 

A major gift was received to support the Parents as Teachers program after Oakland Schools shifted funding priorities and left the program with no funding. 

The Adopt-A-Family holiday gift program was renamed Gifts of Hope to better align with the goals of the program.  In 2024, 321 families and 750 children received gifts from over 170 donors. 

Ballmer Foundation renewed the Agency’s grant for another cycle, providing $1.2 million in funding over 3 years to focus on capacity building. 

The Berkley building was sold in September of 2024 and the Agency initiated a new lease in Royal Oak.  The new location afforded more access for clients in a new, welcoming location that easily reached by public transportation. 

The agency cultural value statements were updated through an inclusive process involving all levels of staff and the board of directors. 

Oakland Family Services was recognized again as a Detroit Free Press Michigan Top Workplace in 2024 for the 11th consecutive year.  This was especially meaningful given the Agency focus on updating our cultural value statements and alignment with the staff’s expectations.